20th Century Genius Award Paper

Running head: TUPAC SHAKUR FOR 20TH CENTURY GENIUS AWARD

20th Century Genius Award Paper

Michael P

University of Phoenix Online

When most people think of Tupac Shakur, they remember a rapper, gangster, or actor. However, these are the people who know very little. Most people have a general lack of knowledge that perpetuates a misunderstanding of Tupac. Tupac has various characteristics that extended beyond his known personality as a rapper, gangster, or actor. Those other characteristics are an intellectual, ghetto activist and urban poet. These are also the characteristics that make Tupac my nomination for the 20th Century Genius Award.

I believe Tupac is the best nominee for this award, because he could relate and reach a great deal of people and tell them he feels what they are going through by showing his concern through his interviews, music, and mainly poetry. Some might ask, He was a rapper, how was he a poet? Poetry is a form of verbal expression. Rap is verbal expression with a musical tone, combination of background beats and a rhythm. So is rap poetry? Poetry can be rapped, therefore rap can be poetry. Rap is a musical outlet to express ones feelings. Tupac was able to compose his lyrics by metaphorically relating his feelings to the masses in a charisma persona. His tactic was to be straight forward, but only to the extent where he can position his self-expression to the reality of shifting the listener from their reality.

Tupac was born on the east coast and moved around from state to state. His mother Afeni Shakur, who was a founding member of the Black Panther Party, was very influential in the development of Tupac’s strong character. Wikipedia encyclopedia states that Tupac was named after an Inca chief named Tupac Amaru, which means "shining serpent" and Shakur is Arabic for "thankful to God" (2006, para 4).

Growing up,...